Child of Destiny

…

Whoosh!

When Shin opened his eyes and looked around, he could not help but furrow his brows in confusion. “What!?”

He was expecting to appear in the middle of a city or at least within a Teleportation Hall filled with people, just like what happened to Divinity City, where he was even captured by the guards for illegal usage and linking of the Teleportation Formation.

He was expecting to appear in the middle of a Royal City in the Aurora Continent.

However, contrary to his expectations, he appeared in the middle of ruins, which seemed to have been dated since ancient times due to how old the marks in the collapsed buildings and such.

The overgrown plants sprouting from the ground had already climbed on the walls, along with the thick mosses that were covering the surface of those walls.

Looking further, he could even see trees growing out of the ruined buildings in the distance.

“Where is this place?” mumbled Shin before opening his map, trying to look for his current location.

He then raised his brows when he found that he was currently in an unknown region, which was outside from explored region. He could not even find any nearby town or village, much less an NPC City.

He was in the middle of nowhere.

Thinking about this, he could not help but pull out another virtual screen and open the official website, trying to see if he could figure out his exact location through the official maps that were released on the site.

Even though these maps were not as detailed as the ones that the players had drawn through their personal exploration of those maps, they were still more than enough to act as a guide for the players.

Naturally, these official releases of maps were only meant for reference and did not leak any other information other than the basic background and history of the said regions.

Unfortunately, Shin could not find any details about the map that he was on. Not even the name of the map was available on the official website, which meant that it was among the unexplored neutral regions that needed to be unlocked by the players, just like the Frozen Kingdom.

“Another unexplored neutral region? Don’t tell me an Empire Quest will suddenly follow,” he mumbled while furrowing his brows.

An Empire Quest was an insanely high-level quest within the game, which had extremely great difficulty. After all, these quests could change the flow of the game just like the Main Quests. It could also affect the terrain, weather, and other conditions of an entire Empire or Kingdom, depending on the result of the quest completion.

Moreover, such quests needed to be done with a highly elite group or a huge expedition team of powerful organizations or top guilds.

Shin had already experienced how difficult an Empire Quest along with the members of the Empyrean Talons, which also required them some help from the Slayers Adventurer Team and others.

It also concerned a series of ’minor’ quests, which would give them some clues along the way.

“Let’s just hope that it is not the case,” he mumbled, hoping that he was wrong.

After all, all the members of the Empyrean Talons were already in the middle of dealing with their respective business, making them unable at the moment.

“But if that is really the case, then I guess I can only ask for Big Sister to send some people from Hand of Midas or Deicide to form an expedition team,” he said before continuing to explore the place.

He at least had to figure out where he was first before asking for any assistance.

After all, they could not just ask everyone from their forces to head to this place through direct teleportation from the Forgotten Temple.

It would be too expensive even for them, who were said to be the wealthiest guild within the game.

Even if he exempted them from any payment for using the teleportation formation from the Forgotten Temple, the teleportation fee for using the formation from the Teleportation Hall of the Divinity City to the underwater temple was still very expensive.

If it were just a few of them, just like the members of the Adventurer Team, then it should not be a problem. However, an elite expedition team would require at least hundreds of members at the very least, especially when the region that they needed to explore was this huge.

It would cost them at least a limb if they wanted to proceed with it.

Moreover, they did not even know if this region would be profitable for them. Even though it was an unexplored neutral region that could have a lot of opportunities, there was still some chance that it would be just a regular region with regular monsters and such.

After all, such places were not new to the game.

There were even some instances where a top guild had sacrificed quite a lot just to reach a certain unexplored region, thinking that they would profit a lot in return. Unfortunately, all their expectations were crushed by reality after realizing that the said region was a standard hunting map with barely enough profit to sustain their losses.

Not only did they not profit from the exploration, but they suffered a lot of losses in the process as well.

At the very least, Shin needed to confirm that this place was a high-level region that could generate enough profit to cover all their losses or even earn them enough benefits that could nullify their sacrifices along the way.

After forming a brief plan inside his head, Shin then proceeded to explore the place.

He first observed the location that he was in, particularly checking the teleportation formation that seemed to have been activated after a very long time.

“The Teleportation Formation is still in good condition despite such a long passage of time and not being maintained at all. The runes are quite ancient as well.”

While observing the formation, Shin summoned the two most experienced Elemental Spirits under his command. “Hanzo! Solus!”

Swoosh! Swoosh!

After gaining enough power and establishing a stronger connection with the Reaper’s Realm, all his Elemental Spirits stayed in that place most of the time. Aside from perceiving Shin’s surroundings from time to time through their deep connections, these Elementals were mostly doing their respective businesses.

“I’m at your command, my Liege!” said Solus while giving Shin a respectful bow.

Hanzo, on the other hand, immediately observed the surroundings right after appearing before saying to Shin. “It looks like you have found a quite interesting place again, brat.”

Solus gave him a sharp glare after seeing his attitude and how he addressed Shin.

However, Hanzo just ignored her and asked. “So, what do you need us to do now?”

Shin did not immediately respond to the question and asked instead. “It seems like you have already found something, Old Man. How about sharing it with us first?”

Hanzo stroked his beard for a moment before replying. “As I said before, you are truly blessed with opportunities. Wherever you go, trouble will always be present, but benefits will always follow immediately after.”

“This place, if I am not wrong, can be considered as an isolated dimension,” he added while looking around.

“An isolated dimension!?” Shin was surprised after hearing that, unable to help himself from thinking about the current patch. ’It can’t be, right? I can’t be that lucky to stumble upon another realm, can I?”

Seemingly reading through Shin’s thoughts, Hanzo shook his head and poured cold water right away. “This place is not the same as what you are thinking, Brat!”

“At most, this can either be an independent pocket space just like the independent world that we have established, a fragment of the main world, or a sealed region just like how the Frozen Kingdom has been sealed before,” clarifying what he just said.

“But given the stable spatial fluctuations surrounding the area, I lean more toward the latter,” he added after looking at the sky and squinting his eyes.

“Ah!” Shin woke up from his dream.

However, he quickly recovered, realizing that this place was highly likely a high-level region. “If it is the same as the Frozen Kingdom, then an Empire Quest is also possible to appear.”

He suddenly felt troubled after realizing this despite his excitement.

He did not doubt Hanzo’s analysis since this old man was an Ancient Void Spirit, who was very familiar when it came to spatial attributes and anything related to it.

“If it is either of those two cases, then the only way to send our people here is through the Teleportation Formation of the Forgotten Temple,” he mumbled.

If it were just any unexplored region in the Aurora Continent, then he could still find a way to navigate their forces to head to this place through land, even traversing a long journey on foot. Unfortunately, this was no longer possible.

“It has already become this complicated before it can even start,” he mumbled along with a helpless sigh.

To make it even worse, Hanzo had given more bad news on top of everything. “Another thing, that Teleportation Formation underneath your feet is a pretty decent one.”

“Unfortunately, it is currently a one-way formation, which requires you to break the seal covering the entire region before being able to access the return function.”

Hearing this, the corner of Shin’s mouth could not help but twitch uncontrollably. “Tsk! Now this has become a headache.”

“I guess I am a bit reckless this time.”

…